Dramatic rescue video shows Texas deputies save man after fiery wreck

Two sheriff’s deputies are being called heroes because they saved a man from a burning car.

The dramatic rescue happened on Dec. 13 along State Highway 124 near Winnie in Chambers County. That’s about 60 miles east of Houston. A man had crashed his vehicle and it was engulfed in flames.

The body camera video released Tuesday shows Deputy Braedon Boznango and Deputy Carlton Carrington running towards the burning vehicle and putting themselves at great risk to pull the man out.

One of them can be heard saying, “Sir, gimme your arms.” But the victim was unconscious at the time.

The two deputies pulled him out of the wreckage. Then they moved him into a nearby puddle and used the water to extinguish the flames all over his body.

The heat from the fire melted some of the equipment the deputies had been wearing.

“My first thought was we can’t let this man burn to death right in front of us,” Carrington said.

“I just kinda turned out all the ambient noise and focused on making sure I could do what needed to be done,” added Boznango.

Carrington remembers watching the flames run up the man’s face.

“There was, I guess, a draft. In my mind I’ve removed thousands of people from burning vehicles. But in my mind, I never factored in the heat,” he said.

“It’s what we do. It’s our job. From the smallest thing to more severe cases like this,” Boznango said.

The man they saved is still in the hospital in critical condition but doctors said he is now stable.

Chambers County Sheriff Brian Hawthorn said he is proud to stand with his two deputies, adding that the man would not have survived if they hadn’t disregarded their own safety.